This is a RETIRED (no longer active)group blog where filmmakers will talk about their films in distribution (any kind of distro: film fest, DVD, VOD, mail-order, theatrical, etc., as long as the film is or will soon be available for the general public to view) and other related topics. Enjoy. Blog Copyright 2006 Sujewa Ekanayake. Content of each individual entry is the property of its author.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Coming to DVD in 2006....?

According to the front page of its official website, the collaborative feature film Deadroom will available on DVD at some point this year. Ideally, that will be the case - but there may be a few kinks in the plan. Said kinks being: irrepressible (irresponsible?) creativity on the part of all four writer/directors (one of whom is yours truly).

The film premiered at SXSW almost exactly a year ago; that was followed by a short festival run that sent us around the country, having the best time of our lives; after which came a period of inactivity, and then the curious, gradual evaporation of our vested interest in the project. Now it's floating in limbo (appropriate, I suppose, given the film's subject matter), where, for the moment, it might stay.

We knew from the beginning that we'd made a good picture, but we also knew it was the sort of project few distributors would want to touch with a ten foot pole. Essentially, what we were hoping for was a small DVD release by a company who understood the integrity of the film and would support it; quality was far more important to us than volume. Making money was the last thing on our mind; we'd been responsible filmmakers and hadn't gone into debt on the film, so our concern was simply getting it out there, in front of an appreciative audience. To that end, we had - and still have - a few offers on the table, and have one or two leads to follow up as well, but we're coming close to taking up the reigns and putting it out ourselves. We'd rather spend the time and money a small-but-respectable release than have our film become padding in some eigth-tier acquisitions catalog, where at best it will see store shelves as a bare bones disc with some hilariously misrepresentative cover. We know what our film is, and know its limitations in terms of audience appeal, but we'd be far happier giving that niche market the best disc we can provide.

So now we just have to release it, which is where the creativity part comes in. We're all already deeply entrenched in other projects. Projects we're very excited about. Projects which we know are better than Deadroom. Projects that are taking up all the money we might spend making and promoting a DVD release. As the months tick on, it's becoming very difficult to muster the enthusiasm to see this film through, to get it out there on the shelves and the Netflix and GreenCine queues. To make it available to those who might want to see it.

So we'll see; it's up in the air at the moment. Maybe the film will become an extra feature on some future DVD. as Richard Linklater's You Can't Learn To Plow By Reading Books is on the Criterion edition of Slacker. Or maybe some burst of energy (or even, dare I say it, demand) will inspire us to go ahead and finish what we started.

In any case, thanks to Sujewa's intrepid efforts, the film will likely have one more screening this coming May in Washington D.C. It'll be interesting to see it with an audience again. It'll be interesting to see it again, period. We've sorta been avoiding it.

1 comment:

If you send Andrew Bujaski $15, he'll burn you a DVD of "Mutual Appreciation" & mail it to you (this was the case around Nov/Dec '05), usually w/ a little hand written note. No packaging for the DVD, no extras on the DVD.Perhaps it will be easy for you guys to make a similar low key mail order deal available to potential customers.

However, I do know/understand about having finished films that filmmakers are reluctant to release. But "Deadroom" did get into some cool festivals, got some good press. So it is probably as not as bad as you feel it to be.

I am looking forward to watching it fully later this month (saw 20 mins of it while taking a break from editing a week or so ago, liked what I saw, but am behind on editing, so virtually all movie watching has been put on hold 'till Date Number One is fully edited).